Saratoga Springs’ Accounts Commissioner is being ticketed for allegedly issuing false sworn certifications in violation of transparency laws, adding to a growing list of legal troubles for top city officials.
Dillon Moran, a Democrat, is facing a new set of legal challenges from the city’s Republican Committee Chair Mike Brandi.
The Saratoga County Sheriff’s office announced Wednesday that it’s ticketing Moran for his alleged failure to release documents following three Freedom of Information Law requests made by Brandi last spring linked to Moran’s proposed short-term rental regulations.
A non-criminal complaint filed with the sheriff alleges Moran issued false sworn certifications in relation to those requests.
In a statement, Brandi said “I just want to be able to exercise my rights under FOIL without fear or favor. This should not be a big ask, but a foundational right of any citizen.” Brandi declined an interview request.
Republican Mayor John Safford says he is surprised by the development, but declined to comment further.
Moran said he had not been served Wednesday and plans to have the city attorneys “deal with this nonsense.” He is set to appear in court December 19th.
Earlier this year, Brandi brought a temporary restraining order against the city after the city council approved a $61,000 legal bill from Moran. He and his deputy Stacey Connors sought counsel from a New York City-based firm for a case related to a dispute over on-call pay for appointed deputies.
Former Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub, a Democrat, was also investigated for that same dispute. Brandi filed a temporary restraining order, blocking Golub’s lawyer from being paid.
Official misconduct charges were brought against Golub and his deputy, Joe O'Neill, who is still in the role, in November. The charges stem from alleged incidents where city employees worked on private property using city resources while on city time.
Golub, who took a governor-appointed role at the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in August, and his attorney Karl Sleight entered a not guilty plea last month.
Sleight filed a subpoena for the HR file the case seemingly emanates from and said he intends to ask the Saratoga County District Attorney’s office to search Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll’s personal and city phone records.
“Well, the preliminary disclosures by the District Attorney’s office suggest that Commissioner Coll was intimately involved in this manner. The more we look at this, the real question here is, what was the motivation for charges? As I’ve said from the beginning, this case involved eight minutes, a jug of Drano, a clogged sink. My question is, what motivated someone to try to charge an attorney of the stature of my client months after the event with this charge? We’ll get to the bottom of it, and it starts today,” said Sleight.
For his part, Coll told WAMC in November he cannot direct city police to file charges.
“Let me put it to you a different way. I took an oath, an oath, to uphold the laws and the ordinances of the city and to do that fairly and equally and that’s what I am going to do and that’s what I’m doing every day. And that is the way to move forward,” said Coll.
O’Neill was suspended without pay for five days and his attorneys have maintained that the charges are political. His court appearance scheduled for Thursday was adjourned to January 7th.
